Desperately seeking Sharman – she’s the one doing the lying

Obviously, those nice union officials have got in Sharman’s ear – nothing to do with wages, conditions, work practices – but this doesn’t excuse her verballing (actually lying about) the Productivity Commission.

(If these allowances are so trivial, get rid of them. They must be a nightmare for the company to administer. Sadly for her, the underutilisation of the factory is an outcome of the ridiculous arrangements – 5 days off in the Melbourne Cup week, include the Food Preservers’ Picnic Day (come off it)and the other RDOs.)

Her claims about dumping – handled now by the Anti-Dumping Commission – are fanciful. There has not been a surge of imports of tinned fruit. In the case of tomatoes, in one minor instance, dumping was established, but it was relatively trivial.

The interesting thing about SPC Ardmona is that its dramatic decline in exports occurred years before the high dollar and domestic consumption of the product has also been falling for years (see Samuel J’s entry). (see PC report also)

And as for the evil supermarket duopoly, actually the scope to a deal with home branded products is a plus for the SPC not a negative.

I have highlighted the lies in Sharman Stone’s tirade.

LIBERAL MP Sharman Stone has accused Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey of “lying” about the plight of SPC Ardmona.

The Prime Minister and Treasurer have blamed overly-generous wages and conditions for pushing the company to the wall, after knocking back a $25 million plea for assistance from the Shepparton-based cannery.

But the Member for Murray, whose federal Victorian electorate takes in the cannery, said wages and conditions for workers at the factory were not to blame for its financial difficulties.

“What they said was, `we’re not going to help because it is the amazing wages and conditions that have knocked this company for six’, and that is just wrong,” she told ABC radio.

Dr Stone said the Productivity Commission had concluded dumping, high import volumes, floods, drought and Australia’s supermarket duopoly had all contributed to the company’s difficulties.

She said the company had already done the “hard yards” in undertaking a major workforce restructure and it was unfair to suggest workers were to blame for the plight of the company.

“What they explained as the reason for not supporting SPCA, which was basically awards and conditions, was about focusing on unions. It wasn’t about the realities of the last standing fruit preserving industry,” she said.

“Perhaps it is a distraction from the facts, which would require some government action.”

Dr Stone said reporting on an array of allowances available to SPC Ardmona workers was “mischievous” and “a complete furphy”.

She said the heat allowance was not unreasonable as it gave workers a 10 minute cold drink break in extreme heat. A wet allowance was for cleaners who worked with caustic materials to buy their own protective clothing.

Dr Stone said SPC would soon publish details of the 2012 enterprise agreement.

Mr Hockey yesterday said the reported allowances were “astounding”, and it was time for businesses to stand on their own two feet

“The age of entitlement is over. The age of personal responsibility has begun,” he said.

Judith, please write to her personally and explain the economic facts of life. It would be worth knowing what is the average cost of an award to the company…not just what’s in the pay packet. Would be interesting to know.

I think it was back in 2004 where in a draft redistribution, the Liberal Party did very well in Victoria overall except Sharman lost her seat. It is well known that Sharman cracked it and sadly, the Liberal Party lost many of the advantages that came from the draft redistribution because the Party put in a submission to retain her seat in the official redistribution.

Is there truth that the employees and locals were looking at running SPC?
The present owners must have seen value for money to buy into the business, now they are crying ‘poor me’, lets hear how much the carbon tax takes out of the business each year.

It is well known that Sharman cracked it and sadly, the Liberal Party lost many of the advantages that came from the draft redistribution because the Party put in a submission to retain her seat in the official redistribution.

Complain all you like but the market delivered this workplace agreement. It’s tough when the thing you love hurts you.

For a start, workplace agreements have nothing to do with market practices. They are imposed in a very restricted legislative environment. The consequence has been a market one as the market continues to operate irrespective of the efforts of legislators to eliminate it. That consequence is that SPC is unable to make a profit because of its cost structure which has been largely legislatively imposed.

The typical solution of the interventionists is to legislate again to overcome the problems that the previous intervention created. So taxpayers will be made to make a contribution which will get the business back in the black.

The market is a bit like gravity. It may be inconvenient at times but it is a fact of reality. You ignore it at your peril.

SPC workers get one rostered day off in every ten. So SPC has to employ 10% more staff to get the same productivity as if they had been working for 10 days. Assume that Shorten is correct and they only get paid $70,000 (forget the allowances) and there are a total of 2000+ workers then an additional 200 are employed to “fill the gap”. That equates to about $14,000,000 each year they are paying out in salaries alone to comply with the Union demands for one rostered, and paid, day off each fortnight. Get your facts right, Dr Stone.

Stone’s accusation that Abbott lied is going straight to the (ALP) pool room. It will be bandied about for years to come.
“One of his own colleagues publicly said he’s a liar.”
You’ll be hearing variants of that from now until forever.

We are the ones saying that if there is not a market for their product at the current price, the plant should restructure or be shut down as is the natural course for organisations and products that fail in a market.

Claim: a five-day Melbourne Cup long weekend.
Fact: Production staff accrue rostered days off (RDOs) during the year which SPCA requires them not to take during the peak season. Instead these RDOs are taken at the start of November, the optimum time for a plant shutdown to allow maintenance in preparation for the canning season from December to April. RDOs are not additional leave.

In other words, RDO’s are not counted as “additional leave” but they operate exactly like a leave system. Judith was right.

Lol. Leftists are demanding, demanding! that a billion dollar multinational corporation, and not just any multibillion dollar corporation mind you, but the king of multibillion dollar corporations: Coca Cola, which up until today was considered by the left to be the poster child for evil corporate power and US cultural imperialism….be given millions of dollars by the Australian taxpayer.

In other words, RDO’s are not counted as “additional leave” but they operate exactly like a leave system. Judith was right.

I don’t think that is quite right. 1 RDO usually accrues by working an extra 30 minutes per shift. Adds up to about a day a month. Don’t know the specifics with SPC but that is the general case everywhere that I’ve seen.

Sharman says Tony lying, Judith says Sharman lying, what does the parent company think about asking for a peanut $25 million? Do they really beleive fruit canning being a viable business in the long run for a remote island like Australia where the domestic market is small.

Judith – what is the lie that apparently Sharman is saying about the PC?

You’ve got to be kidding! Unions still have ‘guild’ picnic days? And how many of the workers at SPC actually attend said picnic? Do they also have brass bands, painted banners and bread-and-dripping? Do they wear cloth caps and bowyangs?

I overhead the guy who sits in the lift hoisting people and materials up and down say that he got a “hotty” yesterday and knocked off at 10:30am – meaning that he was able to take most of yesterday off because the outside air temperature hit the 37C.

He then bragged how he went hope and toiled in his back yard in the sun all on company time.

If developers ever work out how they can import buildings from China, the commercial construction sector and their miserable union will be history.

The market delivered a workplace arrangement? Sorry, that’s explicitly illegal in this country.

I’m a bit curious as to what your point is? The market says shut down SPC. I’m not arguing with it; shut it down. I’ve been on the wrong end of the market plenty of times. It happens. So what? I should only recognize the outcomes of the market if and when it makes me rich? Is that what you’re advocating?

The market economy is what happens. It’s a measurement, not an ideology. In the end it’s just a matter of whether you’re trading in capital or in force.

The RDO is usually deducted pro rata out of the pay packet. Likely to be taken by all at the same time, it’s a waste of time and money. Often mistakenly thought to be a “condition” paid for by the boss,
by no hopers who let it accrue as “savings”.

Already (I’ve learned by watching “Grand Designs”), some British people order kit homes from Germany: the houses are constructed in Germany (with all fittings and appliances), erected in Britain by competent Germans in just a few days, and the only difficulties the new home-owners experience are when they rely on British crane-operators and the like.

On Facebook, Bill Shorten now asserts that SPC Armona workers “get 20 days annual leave”. Of course, even if they got fifty days annual leave, saying they got twenty would not be a lie; Shorten does not say that they “get 20 days annual leave and no other paid days off at all”.
Here’s what the AWU itself reported in 2004:

AWU wins shorter working week at SPC
Wednesday 18th February 2004 11:00
In the first time in two decades for the Goulburn Valley, workers at the SPC Ardmona fruit processing and canning plant in Shepparton have won a shorter working week following six days of industrial action.
The workers, who are members of the Australian Workers’ Union along with the AMWU, CEPU-ETU and FEDFA, won an agreement from SPC Ardmona for a 13.5 per cent improvement in salary conditions including an extra 8 days of leisure time by the third year of the agreement.

Shorten also reports:

Claim: a five-day Melbourne cup long weekend.
Fact: the plant is shut for annual maintenance.

I fail to see how the “fact” refutes the “claim”; it seems that the workers do have a long break.

S3.4.3
Period of leave
(a) A period of 28 days consecutive leave, including non-working days, shall be allowed annually to an employee after twelve month’s continuous service as an employee, other than a schedule 7 employee.

CCA purchased SPC in 2005. So for the nine years that CCA has been in control of this asset they have let it whither so much that it requires $25M each from Commonwealth and State governments. Let CCA shareholders suffer the pain not the taxpayer. That’s what capitalism is all about.

CCA shareholders should question Mr Gonski at the next AGM as to why the board took so long to recognise SPC was a problem asset.

Claim: a five-day Melbourne cup long weekend.
Fact: the plant is shut for annual maintenance.

According to the Enterprise Agreement (FWCA 552):

S3.24.1
An employee employed under this Agreement shall be entitled to the following public holidays:
• New Years Day
• Australia Day
• Good Friday
• Easter Saturday
• Easter Monday
• Anzac Day
• Queens Birthday
• Labour Day
• Melbourne Cup Day
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day

S3.24. 7
An extra day shall be provided and taken on the Monday prior to Melbourne Cup day and will be known as the Food Preserver’s Picnic Day. Other than in the NDC where following consultation with employees impacted the Picnic Day can be moved to an alternate date.

S3.26.3
A RDO [rostered day off] is to be to be scheduled for the day following Melbourne Cup Day.

The claim that SPCA workers have “five-day Melbourne cup long weekend”—that is, the normal weekend of Saturday and Sunday, plus a day off on the preceding Monday, the day off for the Tuesday of the Melbourne Cup and the RDO of the subsequent Wednesday—would seem to be true, according to the published EBA. Of course, a wise manager may well schedule annual maintenance for that period when the workers have a five-day long weekend.

Sherman is a fool. Last April SPC Ardmona made claims for assistance on the basis that it had a valid basis under WTO rules and WTO safeguard actions were warranted. The Productivity Commission investigated and found no valid basis for such claims.
The problem with SPC Ardmona doesn’t appear to be the extraordinarily generous conditions of employment it offers- that is perhaps a symptom of the real problem- a tolerance of rent seeking for a privileged group of companies with high public recognition.

Barnaby Joyce endorsed Mirabella in Indi and even appeared in advertisements supporting her. Most National Party members voted for Mirabella. The minority that supported Voice 4 Indi have been ostracised internally and people who were previously seeking Nats pre-selection in state seats not even bothering because they got the clear message they wouldn’t get much support if they did run.

Apparently allowances cost SPC 116,000$ per year, most of the problems are management ineptitude, and lack of market. If the company closes, Directors will move to other high-paying directorships, unions will suck thumbs moving to the next company they can hoodwink, make as much money as possible.

sabrina; sure. But if it stays open the same thing happens AND the taxpayer is down $25 million.

And if history teaches us anything it’s that there’ll be this $25 mill, then another, then maybe one more, and then the whole lot will go under anyway, only having been left to fester so long it will be in much worse shape, and the taxpayer will pick up everyone’s ridiculously generous severance benefits.

Stone’s accusation that Abbott lied is going straight to the (ALP) pool room. It will be bandied about for years to come.
“One of his own colleagues publicly said he’s a liar.”
You’ll be hearing variants of that from now until forever.

Stone is not thinking long term by giving Labor this ammunition. She could have criticised the Libs decision without the ugly sound bites. Labor will use her to hurt Abbott and the Liberals and then when the time comes they will turn on her. Going independent doesn’t matter if the other side puts forward their own “independent” candidate.

I did a bit of digging today and uncovered the sorts of positions that get paid less than production line workers at SPC (And I also told Stone to go take a hike after she tweeted more of her nonsense) and came up with some serious jobs.

A constable in the Queensland Police Service gets about the same (a bit less to a bit more) than workers at SPC, and the last SPC worker to get killed on the job was when exactly?

Level 3 Enrolled Nurses in the employ of Queensland Health get much the same base rate of pay as SPC workers, and they save lives, the others stuff peaches in tins.

Senior Care/Senior Case Staff for organisations like Blue Care get paid less than production line workers at SPC (and the auxiliary staff at like organisations get paid a good deal less) and they’re our nation’s front-line aged care professionals, often the last people our elderly have contact with on this mortal coil.

First Year Law graduates get paid less than SPC production line workers, though I dare say no-one is going to complain about that.

Stone has guts and integrity, a rare characteristic in a federal member, and almost unheard of in the Coalition.
She also is telling the truth. Read the current agreement. Abbott is simply lying.
The spin doctors are creating a narrative to demonise Unions. Stone cares for for the truth and her constituents more than she does for Credlin’s machinations – so inconvenient…..

Good grief… Sharman Stone’s shares are up!
Have you ever met a politician who did not lie?
Regarding wages and salaries… municipal managers receive more than SPC workers.
Victoria needs to have an election quick!

Given SPCA has in fact “got its house in order” a new requirement for Federal funds support, I’ve asked Cabinet to revisit its NO decision

What a fucking cheek!
Spends the week burning bridges and now she calls for a reconsideration.
The next party room meeting will be interesting. She can stand by for a massive “Get Fucked Sharman”, particularly from those sitting on electoral margins way lower than hers.

If developers ever work out how they can import buildings from China, the commercial construction sector and their miserable union will be history.

Might as well make some use of those shipping containers that all the other Chinese imports come packed in.

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Liberty Quotes

The heart of the matter is the way public debt allows the current generation of voters to live at the expense of those as yet too young to vote or as yet unborn. In this regard, the statistics commonly cited as government debt are themselves deeply misleading, for they encompass only the sums owed by governments in the form of bonds.— Niall Ferguson